Sinfonische Horizonte – Paare

Symphony concert of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra in the Liederhalle

GINASTERA | Three Dances from "Estancia"
MONTERO | Latin Concerto
BERLIOZ | Symphonie fantastique

Gabriela Montero, piano
Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Andrey Boreyko

HARRIET & HECTOR

The ballet "Estancia", or more precisely a concert suite of dances from it premiered in 1943, is probably the best-known work by Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera. The ballet is set on an Argentinian cattle farm, where a young man from the city falls in love with the farmer's daughter. He only wins her love when he defeats the local gauchos at a dance tournament with a "malambo".
Even though the story told in Hector Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" is mainly fictional, it has a real background. The piece, first performed in Paris in 1830, is undoubtedly one of the favorite works of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra and its audiences. And it tells the story, albeit in a highly imaginative form, of people who actually existed: When the English actress Harriet Smithson played Ophelia in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in English during a guest performance in Paris, the writer Alexandre Dumas reported that it was the first time he had seen "people of flesh and blood" on stage. Also in the audience was the 23-year-old student Hector Berlioz (although he did not understand English at all), who promptly fell passionately in love with Smithson and subsequently attended all the performances with the actress in Paris. His passion was completely one-sided, Smithson traveled back to her home country without receiving him, and Berlioz dealt with the pain of his love by composing the "Symphonie fantastique" ... The fact that Harriet & Hector later married (which brought them little happiness) is another story.